God's Goodness is Abundant | Grateful, Thankful, Blessed

In the weeks that have passed since I’ve last written, I have been learning so much. Mostly, I’m learning about thankfulness. I talked about this around Thanksgiving and how I didn’t want to use one holiday to be thankful...I wanted to practice being thankful everyday. Since then, I’ve been receiving some lessons in this area.

What I’ve realized is that I DO indeed have a lot to be thankful for! While I don’t have EVERYTHING I’ve asked for, I certainly have everything I need and so much more. As I look over the course of my life, it’s easy for me to see how well taken care of I am by God, my family, my friends and my husband. I often times take the things that are part of my “normal” for granted. For example, electricity!

A couple weeks ago, the county I live in had an ice storm that caused trees to snap and power lines to fall to the ground. With the power lines went the internet and the cell phone towers also froze over. My whole world crashed! I knew I relied on these things pretty heavily, but I didn’t know how much until it was all gone.

As I’m complaining about have no electricity, cell phone service or heat, I am reminded of the people that never have these things. This is their normal. My tilted world is someone else’s normal. I was slightly disappointed in my attitude towards the situation and how ungrateful I was for what I consider life’s simple pleasures. The four short days that I waited for the electricity to be restored while sitting in the comfort of my sister’s warm home, I knew that I was ungrateful for some of the every day blessings in my life.

The loss of power, cell service and internet was a reboot I desperately needed. I can now see how blessed I am to wake up and turn the heater on because I’m cold, call my husband because I need help, and cook dinner every night because I’m hungry. I’m thankful for the job that I truly enjoy and the income it provides us to buy the things we need. I’m happy that I get to be around people I love everyday.

I don’t think it has to take a major catastrophe like the one I had for us to reboot our systems. If you need a reboot, ask God to remind you of all the good things in your life. Let the reminders flood in and change your perspective. Trust me; you’ll like it.

Psalm 31:19 - "Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind!"

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